The Journey Begins

The Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study (UAPS) began to take shape when Michael Adams, founder and president of Environics Research Group and the non-profit Environics Institute, and David Newhouse, Chair of Indigenous Studies at Trent University, found themselves at a conference discussing social change among First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people in Canada.

“The mission of the Environics Institute,” Adams says, “is to survey people whose voices Canadians don’t often hear. We had spoken to immigrant groups, youth, even the people of Afghanistan. People began to ask me, ‘Where are the voices of Aboriginal peoples?’”

Around the same time, the 2006 census data were released; they indicated that a large and rapidly growing proportion of Aboriginal people in Canada were living in cities. “If the census is right, we have over half a million First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people living in Canadian cities. Does the average Canadian have any image of who these people are, how they relate to their cities, what they are contributing, or what their challenges are? I think it’s a huge blind spot.”

David Newhouse had also noticed a gap in research relating to Aboriginal peoples in Canada. “There is a lot of research out there, including research on Aboriginal people living in cities. But much of the research is social-service based: it sees these communities through the lens of some problem or need—not as complex, resilient groups. In talking to Michael, I had high hopes that we could do research that would offer a new picture of urban Aboriginal realities.”

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